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Steven McCord, a lieutenant of police in a fairly large midwestern city, has been coarsened by twenty years' exposure to violence and cruelty. At forty-two, he has reached a crossroads in his career and in his life. He's been entrusted with command of one of his city's toughest districts, and as a senior lieutenant, he is poised for promotion to captain. But instead he's studying law-because he wants out. His old mentor, Sergeant Hughes, fears that McCord will soon enter into that most contemptible of all legal specialties, criminal defense. McCord denies it, but in truth he doesn't know exactly where he's going to end up.
Then comes the "common ordinary murder" of an old eccentric-a resident of McCord's district-and with it a personal crisis for McCord. Having given up on God long ago, he now seems to be losing faith in humanity as well. But something about the case draws him, against his will, deeper into the lives of the victim and his family, pulling McCord back to a place where he will know again the passion and pain of being alive.
Written in the intense, clear-cut style that is Donald Pfarrer's trademark, "A Common Ordinary Murder" is a gripping story of crime and punishment; it is also the drama of one man's test of love and strength.
Advance praise for "A Common Ordinary Murder"
"A number of intriguing, complicated characters; a particularly heinous crime; solid police work; and a poignant sketch of a city in decline are good reasons to read this one . . . really an examination of faith, its loss, marriage, and love."
-"Booklist"
Corruption, Creatures, and Clams
"If you listen carefully, as you wander the darkened streets of Providence late at night, perhaps you will hear a sound..."
Home to H.P. Lovecraft and haunted by Edgar Allen Poe, Rhode Island has long been a nexus of horror.
What lurks under the streets of Providence? What is swimming up Narragansett Bay? What do you do with the corpse of a bloated city councilor?
In this collection, award-winning author and storyteller Mark Binder shares tales of horrific history, pernicious politics and fatal food. Limited edition volume of three stories: The Vampire Clams of Narragansett Bay, Old Scratch Nickels, The Old One.
"One of Rhode Island's Leading Storytellers"
- Providence Journal
Mark Binder is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied autobiographical storytelling with Spalding Gray, and was kicked out of class for lying. An award-winning performance storyteller, he relishes spinning tales for multigenerational listeners around the world. He is the author of more than 20 books and audio books. Mark lives in Providence with his wife and family.
The most meaningful journeys encompass more than the distance we travel...
When Martha files for divorce from her controlling and dismissive husband, Tony, she knows she'll have to begin again. Tony persuaded her to abandon her dreams of chocolate and pastry fame, and to break a promise to her grandmother, to follow him and his dreams.
Martha's heart pulls her back to her hometown in seaside Maine, to Gram, and to the bakery where Gram is still waiting for her to return. But before she can go home, Martha must learn who she really is, and her journey of discovery leads her south-from Baltimore and Tony's betrayal, to the Gulf coast of Florida and the friends she'd made in culinary school, when her dreams had felt within her reach.
When she eventually returns to Baltimore, life offers her another chance at love. But Martha can't believe in love again until she first believes in herself.
A Dream Worth Keeping
is a story of friendship and loss, guilt and forgiveness. It takes readers on a journey of love and redemption-and reminds us that we can't love anyone else until we love ourselves.
A remarkable debut novel rich in atmosphere, color, and suspense, Caro Peacock's A Foreign Affair is an irresistible blend of history, adventure, and ingenious invention that brings an extraordinary new writer--and a truly endearing and unforgettable heroine--to the literary stage.
The year is 1837. Queen Victoria, barely eighteen, has just ascended to the throne of England, and a young woman named Liberty Lane has just had her first taste of true sorrow. Refusing to accept that her gentle, peace-loving father has been killed fighting a duel, she vows to see justice done. . . .
The trail she follows is a twisting and dangerous one, leading the spirited young Englishwoman into an intricate weave of conspiracy. Contacted by secret agents, she is asked to pose as a governess in order to infiltrate cold, rambling Mandeville Hall and spy on its master, Sir Herbert Mandeville, who is at the center of a treasonous plan.
Nothing at the hall is what it seems, and every turn reveals another deceit, another surprise, another peril, leaving Libby to wonder who to trust and embroiling her in a deadly affair that could destroy the young queen and place Libby herself in mortal peril. . . .
A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me is populated by characters, young or old or neither, who are well educated, broadly knowledgeable, often creative and variously accomplished, whether as a doctor or a composer, an academic or a journalist. And every one of them carries a full supply of the human condition: parents in assisted-living or assisted-dying facilities, too many or too few people in their families and marriages, the ties that bind a sometimes messy knot, age an implacable foe, impulses pulling them away from comfort into distraction or catastrophe. Terrifyingly self-aware, they refuse to go gently even when they re going nowhere fast, in settings that range across the metropolitan and suburban Northeast to the countryside of upstate New York and New England.
Relentlessly inventive, alternately hilarious and tragic, always moving, this book proves yet again that Gates is one of our most talented, witty and emotionally intelligent writers."